1.5 Against the Odds

The team wakes up and heads into the tavern and quickly grabs the remaining quest from yesterday.

The team to the location marked on the map. Weirdly they come across...a singular bush? Milly feels for life in the bush and discovers that its fake. Bronz then attempts to strike the bush with his axe, but the bush mechanically moves out of the way revealing a trapdoor. Milly goes behind it and opens it with their thorn whip.

They enter the trap door and climb down a ladder into a dark, shady environment. Large metalic buildings wall the streets of a this unnerving city.

Once they make it to the ground, they look around for the person who could've left the quest. But all they see is a crying child. She runs up asking if they've seen her mom. After some deliberating they follow her into the alley she said she had last seen her go down. Suddenly, with a snap of her fingers, she dons a suit and sunglasses. With a sudden change in demeanor, She explains who she is.

“Ok listen the name’s Chi, Chi Korishae. You are the guys who accepted my quest, right? Here’s the deal: this place is secret to most. It’s named Alhadid. Normally, it functions as a city for shady characters, shops selling…harder goods, and those who have a disdain for magic. I keep watch down here every now and then, there's some good people mixed in with the trash…and even the trash can have information. Recently, I caught wind of some plans by a casino owner around here, Giovani Botventre. He’s the most powerful man in the city…and he also hates magic more than anyone. Rumor has it hes got plans for a device to the drain the magical energy out of a being and use it for himself. If he built something like that it’s bad news. So here’s the deal, I’ve scheduled a business meeting with him. I’m gonna need some of you to tag along with me. he’s known for his rather …cut throat buisness practices. The office is on the top floor of the casino. While team A acts as the distraction, team B willl infitrate the casino its self, somewhere on the second floor theres a safe containing the blueprints. You’d have to break into the second floor as well. It’s reserved for vip members who all have a braclet identifiying them as such. Yall are welcome to keep any loot you “come across”. Now he’s no idiot, he’ll know what were doing the second your spotted. Security’s bound to be tight as well. We’ll have a find a way to manipulate the security while you all infiltrate.

The team splits into two groups and heads to the casino. Team A goes in for the meeting. They follow an orc guard up the stairs and meet Giovanni. He sinisterly introduces himself as the most powerful man in the city.

Meanwhile, Team B is waiting for the go-ahead when a mysterious duo appears. The pair introduce themselves as Sharp and Dapper. No one falls for this. "Dapper" accidentally lets slip that they're there to steal something, and the group pieces together that they have the same goal. Fenwick, Twig, and Gnosis intimidate the duo into cooperating while Milly watches.

Team B enters the casino and attempts to get past the guards of the vip room. Meanwhile, Team A is stalling Giovanni.

Team B has Dagger cause a scene so the rest of them can slip past the guard. Milly stays behind, takes the form of a spider and climbs into a vent. Milly ends up in a hallway and explores it. While this happens, Slary declares he must use the restroom and brings Bronz. A guard follows them into the hallway. Bronz walks out of the bathroom first and fails to decieve the guard so he goes in for the attack. Hearing this Sawyer begins slamming his staff on the ground to prevent those in the meeting from hearing the fight.

Team B journeys up to the second floor and notices a bright chandelier. Twig flies up and knocks it down. This lures the guards out, and they begin to brawl.

Simultaneously, Sawyer is cornered by the guards and chooses to fight. Giovanni immediately gets ready to brawl. Milly meets up with Slary and Bronz heads back into the meeting room. Milly and Slary end up in a strange security room monitoring the casino. They manage to unlock the vault from this room.

While Twig and Fenwick fight the guards, Gnosis sneaks into the vault and takes the blueprints. Immediately lasers appear all over the room.

Slary uses the wand of secrets and suddenly one of the screens in the room becomes like a window and both him and Milly hop through and land back into the office landing on a guard. They see that they have landed in a firefight. Guards with guns, Giovanni's arm has shifted into a mini gun, and even Chi is darting around with a pistol.

Giovanni is lured to the edge of the room, then from the other side, Milly wraps him in a thorn whip while Bronz and Sawyer get the opportunity for an attack. Then Milly yanks him back and Sawyer runs up and deals the finishing blow.

Twig flies down and fires arrows at the devices, shooting the lasers, allowing Gnosis to escape. "Sharp" immediately tries to double-cross the team by stealing the blueprints, but just as he's about to snap he realizes that dagger is still downstairs and runs off.

The team leaves the casino after picking up some additional loot and says goodbye to Chi as she gives them a business card marked as an address in Faylil.

The team returns home after an action-packed but successful adventure.

MEANWHILE

A man runs through the woods, a large monster is on his trail...is this is?......

SLASH

The monster is suddenly sliced in half.

The man looks up at his hero, "Who are you?"

"Call me, the Flame Knight..."